Group promotes military entrepreneurs

Members of the Rosie Network gather at the organization’s Military Entrepreneur Small Business Expo on St. Patrick’s Day in Balboa Park. From left to right: Desiree Cantu, owner of Hippie Karma; Jill Ivie, executive director of the Rosie Network; Deborah Marin, a chiropractor for Discover Wellness; and Sandra Seader, a real estate expert. / photo by Dave Spiva • U-T

Members of the Rosie Network gather at the organization’s Military Entrepreneur Small Business Expo on St. Patrick’s Day in Balboa Park. From left to right: Desiree Cantu, owner of Hippie Karma; Jill Ivie, executive director of the Rosie Network; Deborah Marin, a chiropractor for Discover Wellness; and Sandra Seader, a real estate expert. / photo by Dave Spiva • U-T

In 2012, the wife of a Navy SEAL needed some work done on the family home while her husband was on deployment.

Stephanie Brown of San Diego was uncomfortable contacting strangers advertising their services on Craigslist. She said she would have felt more trust, rapport and overall comfort with a military veteran or spouse doing the work.

When Brown told her husband there should be an easy way to find businesses owned by people with strong connections to the military, he told her: “Then build it.”

And so she did.

The Rosie Network is a San Diego-based nonprofit that promotes businesses run by veterans and active-duty service members’ families. Brown, 51, started it last year and now serves as its CEO. Filling out the group’s leadership structure are executive director Jill Ivie, 45, and executive director of development Robin Elliot, 46 — both of them also Navy SEAL wives. All three women operate the network as volunteers.

The network uses word-of-mouth marketing through a wide circle of military spouses across the country, as well as through military programs that help outgoing service members transition back to civilian life.

Businesses listed by the network are verified for their armed-forces affiliations. During the past year, the group’s website has registered more than 800 such businesses nationwide, including about 160 in Southern California. It aims to continue adding listings from coast to coast, particularly in regions with a large military presence.

The organization’s main mission is to give qualifying businesses free presence and marketing online, as well as offer shoppers a simple way to find these entrepreneurs. Listings on the website are free.

“The Rosie Network is an excellent idea for (an) online business network because it automatically gives customers and business owners a connection,” said Holly Berkley, an Internet marketing consultant who teaches a class on the topic at San Diego State University.

Funding for the Rosie Network comes from corporate and personal donations. Sponsors include General Motors, Lock-N-Load Java and the SEAL Naval Special Warfare Family Foundation. The network did not disclose its revenue and expenses.

“I think that Rosie Network can find other ways to fund this project, like having business owners pay for extra space on the site, or to be a top listing, or provide advertising to banks and larger companies that have special services for military families,” Berkley wrote in an email.

Brown and the group’s other leaders said they’re motivated partly by a desire to help fellow military wives.

According to a report published by the Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families, military wives have a higher unemployment rate than women in the civilian population. That’s largely because military families are more likely to move every two to three years, creating job instability for military wives.

“That is something we have long been aware of,” Brown said. “The lack of opportunity in the traditional corporate world is pushing more military spouses to become entrepreneurs. That’s part of the reason we are doing this for military spouses. It’s all about putting money into the pockets of the families that need it, and getting the word out to the local community that these businesses are here.”